Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to the art of turbomachines and, more particularly, to a heat pipe temperature management system for wheels and buckets in a turbomachine.
Turbomachines include a compressor operatively connected to a turbine that, in turn, drives another machine such as, a generator. The compressor compresses an incoming airflow that is delivered to a combustor to mix with fuel and be ignited to form high temperature, high pressure combustion products. The high temperature, high pressure combustion products are employed to drive the turbine. Due to the high temperature of the combustion products, gas turbine wheels and buckets require cooling. Known materials have their limits and cooling has allowed wheels and buckets to operate at these high temperatures. This cooling is most commonly accomplished with air extracted from the compressor and less commonly with steam. However, negative attributes of compressor air cooling are a reduction in cycle output capacity and efficiency while the negative attributes of steam cooling include the additional component cost due to complexity. As such, there is a need for alternative wheel and bucket cooling methods.